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Archives for January 2017

Some networks are comprised solely of people, such as an alumni network, whereas other networks are based on a collection of computers talking to each other. Many are a combination of people and computers.

Even though it may not sound important, the underlying design of these networks substantially changes how they are used, and what features and limitations they have.

The best-known network is the Internet itself.

It’s a collection of billions of computers through copper wires, fiberglass cables, cellular towers, and even satellites. This immense network allows an enormous amount of information to move around the world at very little cost, with huge benefits to the people who have access to it.

The underlying design of the Internet is decentralized.

This means that there is no central point of control on the Internet. If any particular computer in the network goes down, or even if certain cables are cut, the network as a whole continues functioning. The Internet was specifically built to be decentralized in order to make it robust and resistant to attempts to shut it down and stop the free flow of information.

However, the way most people use the Internet today is largely through centralized networks.

Most of the major platforms used for social media or ecommerce today are centrally controlled by certain companies. Even applications that give users the experience of connecting directly with one another, such as Facebook, Etsy or Snapchat, are owned by the companies of those names. As such, they have complete access to–and even ownership of–all of the conversations you have and the content you share on their networks. Unlike the decentralized Internet itself, these companies control the flow of information on their own network.

Here is the basic model:

Centralized network

The outside circles are users, and they are all forced to communicate with the large circle in the middle, controlled by the platform itself. Information moves into and out the servers owned by these businesses and is used for the benefit of the new owners of the data.

These centralized networks act as middlemen on top of the Internet itself. These middlemen are extremely popular because they offer value services to their users at low cost, monetary or otherwise. Many charge no money, but they are still paid by collecting all of their users’ data. Some do charge money, especially the ecommerce networks.

As widespread as they are though, many of these networks still have restrictions like payment methods that can’t be used, certain items that can’t be sold or they don’t allow users from certain geographical areas to join.

Here is the decentralized model:

Decentralized network

Instead of being forced to use the networks of these middlemen, users can now choose from a variety of decentralized networks which aren’t controlled by any organization; they are fully peer-to-peer (p2p). These networks are decentralized as the Internet itself is decentralized, meaning there is no central point of control, no company collecting all of the users’ data, and no one to make them pay for access to the network. Users can join from any location and don’t need permission.

Decentralized networks provide a way for people to take greater control of their online lives.

For an application to be truly p2p, it means that a user’s own computer or node connects directly to another user’s computer or node to communicate, with no stops in between. There are several of these networks being used today, such as:

Bittorrent is a p2p network that gives users the ability to share files between each other.

Bitmessage is a p2p network that gives users the ability to send secure messages to each other.

Retroshare is a p2p network that gives users the ability to participate in a social network without relying on a third party.

Bitcoin is a p2p network that gives users the ability to send digital cash to each other.

OpenBazaar is a p2p network that gives users the ability to engage in ecommerce directly with each other.

On these networks people are able to do many of the things they could do on the centralized platforms, with the benefit that they aren’t relying on a middleman anymore.

With Bittorent, they have access to files that other platforms don’t allow.

With Bitmessage, they know that no one else can read their messages.

With Bitcoin and OpenBazaar, they don’t need to ask permission to send money or engage in commerce.

Some of these technologies have been around for a few years, and some of them are very new. They are in various stages of development and many lack the features that the centralized platforms have built but they grow stronger every day. It’s unclear how widely these p2p networks will become adopted in the coming years, but it’s of major importance that users now have another choice.

Instead of just choosing between competing middlemen, they can now choose to bypass them altogether and use the Internet as it was originally built.

Are you looking for ways to decentralize more of your applications?Download OpenBazaar to begin buying or selling right away with no middlemen.

When you think about money, you probably don’t think about innovation.

Monetary innovations occurred every few centuries – millennia even – but this is now changing.

You may welcome monetary innovation, or fear it, but either way it seems likely to impact our lives in the near future. 2016 saw major gains for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and many expect 2017 to follow suit. Now 8 years in circulation, Bitcoin is approaching adolescence. Instead of wondering what potential it holds, we are beginning to see how it actually is being used.

So what is this new money? Is it…

A currency?

An asset?

A commodity?

Digital cash?

Entry in a ledger?

Speculative investment?

Magical internet money?

Basically the answer is…yes. It’s all of those things and more. It’s not just “magical internet money” that is a toy for developers or a lottery ticket for a speculator.

Bitcoin is being used more and more each day. The first few years after it launched, there were fewer than 1,000 transactions happening on the network each day. Now there are 300,000 happening each day, and that number continues growing. The same is true for technology built on top of Bitcoin.

OpenBazaar and other Bitcoin-based technologies are still new, but they are being used all over the world.

People in the developed world might be uncertain about why they should use something like Bitcoin. If you have cash that mostly keeps its value, and you have access to the credit system, why do you need yet another thing to worry about? For people in places where the monetary system has failed them though, the answer is clear.

Wider adoption of this new monetary innovation matters for everyone.

The nature of cryptocurrency is fundamentally different than any sort of economic system we’ve seen in the world.

You don’t need to place your trust in third parties in order for the system to work

No company or government can shut you out of the system; it’s permissionless

No one can censor or reverse your transactions

You aren’t required to tie your identity to your transactions

Transactions are inexpensive and low-cost

The currency can’t be artificially inflated (losing its value)

Because of these attributes, people are using Bitcoin for a variety of reasons.

They are using it because it’s more private than credit cards, or because they can’t even get a credit card in the first place.

They are using it because it’s cheaper and faster than existing methods.

They are using it because the government in their country is destroying the value of their national currency.

They are using it because they don’t trust the existing system for a variety of reasons, or because they’re trying to build a new and better system altogether.

It’s unclear what will happen in 2017, but it seems likely the monetary innovation of cryptocurrency will play a larger role in our lives than it has before.

Are you looking for a way to use your cryptocurrencies and drive new technology forward?Download OpenBazaar now and give it a try!

The Milestone 1 developer release of OpenBazaar 2.0 is now available! This release is meant solely for developers and those building or intending to build on top of the OpenBazaar platform. You can read more about what the release entails here.

Since this is a release meant for development, the functions available in Milestone 1 are very minimal. They include:

Users can download and install the client and server from Github, and use it to fill in their profile, store info, and post listings

The network can host listings, stores, and user profiles

Users can follow and unfollow

Here’s a short walkthrough video by our UX / Design Lead, Mike Wolf:

Are you a developer who wants to get involved in this early stage?Check back next week & we’ll let you know what you can do!

Want to start RIGHT NOW buying and selling with Bitcoin using version 1.0?Download OpenBazaar now and do the thing!

Today we’ve reached the milestone 1 version of the OpenBazaar 2.0 software. This release is meant solely for developers and those building or intending to build on top of the OpenBazaar platform. The release is not meant for end users and is missing numerous core features needed for engaging in real transactions. Before the launch of the full version of the 2.0 software we will have a formal beta with a fully featured release; details of this formal beta will be posted on this blog soon.

We define milestone 1 as such:

Beta Users can download and install the client and server from github, and use it to fill in their profile, store info, and post listings. The network can host listings, stores, and user profiles.

This is the bare level of functionality needed for developers to use and understand key aspects of the new design in the 2.0 software. Developers can now begin using the software to post and retrieve data from the OpenBazaar / IPFS network, enabling the building of crawlers, search engines, and other tools.

Instructions

If the 2.0 software has been installed on your machine previously, you’ll need to delete the existing OpenBazaar2.0 data directory before installation.

When running the program the first time, you may need to wait a few moments and click “Retry” if the connection fails.

Developer releases include a “Feedback” button to send feedback to our development team. Note the button on the bottom right of the client in the following image.

Milestone 2

The next milestone focuses on product discovery and communication. Users will be able to search for listings using third party services, and browse listings using the new “channels” feature. Direct chat between users will also be completed.

Are all these changes beneficial? These technologies clearly have benefits, but what about their risks? How should we assess emerging technologies in 2017?

The questions are only getting tougher as we continue. Even within the Bitcoin community the debate about the future of the blockchain is intense and can be difficult to understand, much less take a stance on, but we have a collective responsibility to take an active part in defining our ongoing relationship with technology.

If we unquestioningly accept or reject new technologies we may face unexpected risks or forgo substantial benefits.

Here are some questions to ask about emerging technology in the new year:

What does this technology do?

Who controls this technology?

Who benefits from – and who bears the costs of – this technology?

These questions create a simple framework to analyze emerging technologies. Every person has different opinions on what makes technology beneficial. This post is meant to give the user a framework, not meant to convey any sort of objective analysis (though the opinions of the author will be displayed).

1. What does this technology do?

In order to determine if an emerging technology is beneficial, you must know what it does. While this sounds obvious, it’s all too common for people to dismiss emerging technology as not beneficial (or even harmful) without even taking the time to understand how it works. Adam Thierer, technology policy expert, explains so-called “techno-panics” where people act unreasonably towards the threats of emerging technology.

If you look at the details of most emerging technologies you’ll find the specific action they enable is typically somewhat tame and nothing to be afraid of, but some take the worst case scenario and play on people’s fears and ignorance of the new technology.

2. Who controls this technology?

A core aspect of technology is its dynamic nature. A technology doesn’t spring into existence and remain static, but grows and changes over time. It’s important to understand who controls this technology in order to properly assess how beneficial it is, and over what time scale the costs or benefits will remain, or be lost.

If a technology is purely digital, then it’s important to determine if it is open or closed source. Open source technology means the code is available for everyone to look at and use, whereas closed source technology is controlled only by those building it. Technology built on closed source code may not be malicious and may be beneficial to its users; many of the most popular applications are closed source.

Unfortunately, there are dangers in used closed source technology. First, you don’t know exactly what it is doing. Since no one but the builders have access to the code, you are forced to trust that they aren’t doing anything harmful. Second, even if you currently trust them, with closed source you need to trust them forever. This makes assessing the benefit of technologies built on closed source code difficult. What was beneficial yesterday might be malicious tomorrow, and you wouldn’t know.

With open source project, developers are able to see what the code is doing and see when it changes. They can relay this information to everyone so that no one needs to place so much trust in the builders.

If control of a technology is closely held by a single organization or small group of people, then you are forced to trust their motivations currently as well as in the future. If the control of the technology is distributed to all its users and not held by a small group, trust isn’t needed.

3. Who benefits from – and who bears the costs of – this technology?

At first glance it seems obvious that the people who benefit from emerging technologies are whoever is using them. At some level this is true; in most cases people aren’t using a certain technology unless they believe it is helping them. However, not everyone is aware of the costs involved with using some technologies.

There are trade-offs associated with nearly all technologies. Some trade-offs are obvious. Buying the newest technology typically costs more money than existing technologies. Purchasing the vehicle with the most recent safety improvements will likely be more expensive than older (but less safe) models. The newest smartphones cost the most. These are easy to see. Other times the trade-offs are more difficult to calculate.

Examples

1. What does this technology do?

There are many examples of emerging technologies that people don’t take time to understand. Drones are machines that make flying substantially cheaper and more accessible to the general population, and the vast majority of drone owners are responsible and pose no threats to others. However, due to conflating drones with large military drones used overseas in combat zones, and a few infrequent cases of irresponsible drone owners, some fear the worst from a society where drone use is common. Understanding how drones work – including their limitations – should help allay those fears.

2. Who controls this technology?

There are numerous examples of a technology initially having noble intentions and eventually straying from them due to them being controlled by a small group.

Paypal is an example. Peter Thiel co-founded Paypal, and described a vision for Paypal that would compete with government issued currency and protect users from inflation. Years later, Paypal has been unable to deliver on Thiel’s vision, while another emerging technology – Bitcoin – has begun to do just that. This is because of who controls the two technologies. Paypal is controlled by a company and must respond to company leadership, shareholders, and governments. Bitcoin is controlled by no central organization and no one is forced to trust that any company, group of shareholders, or government won’t change it for the worse – because they can’t.

No matter how noble the intentions of the creators are, nor how beneficial the technology is today, if it’s controlled by a small group then you cannot be certain those benefits will remain over time.

3. Who benefits from – and who bears the costs of – this technology?

The traditional model for online shopping is an example of unseen costs. A buyer may chose Amazon or Alibaba because of convenience and selection. The process of buying is simple and quick, and the prices are usually pretty good. What a buyer doesn’t see are the costs associated, both to himself and to the seller.

The most obvious cost is the cut taken from the transaction itself, typically around 10 or 15%. The seller typically passes on some of the costs to the buyer, meaning they are effectively paying higher prices due to those fees.

Another cost is the loss of data from both parties. The platform now knows more information about both parties involved. They can take that information and build detailed profiles about the users, and use that information themselves or sell that information to others. There is a cost associated with the risk that the platform will be hacked and your private information stolen, especially credit card information. Identity theft and online fraud are rampant, largely due to online retailers having their security breached.

Other costs are less obvious. Buyers and sellers are shown a curated and censored marketplace of goods and services. The platforms tightly control their own marketplaces with terms and conditions and are willing to censor trade for their own benefit or on behalf of governments. You may not have access to the best products because of behind the scenes deals, or the platform may remove products you love in favor of cheaper products you don’t want.

Perhaps the least obvious cost is the exclusion of users from this system who don’t have access to credit. Users who are unable to obtain a credit card, either due to their geographical location or socioeconomic status, aren’t able to participate in the system at all. Users in the system aren’t even aware of their exclusion and will never know what goods or services they could have offered or purchased.

Using Bitcoin and OpenBazaar for online commerce have their own trade-offs, but avoid some of the costs mentioned above. With both Bitcoin and OpenBazaar…

No organization controls the technology; it is completely distributed.

No company, group of developers, or government controls the open source code.

Users need not fear about a small group exerting control and straying from the original intentions of the project.

Everyone who uses the technology benefits from not relying on middlemen. Users don’t pay fees, don’t have their data collected, and don’t have their trade censored. The costs are also borne by the same users, needing to run the software on their computers and connecting to the internet.

OpenBazaar doesn’t exclude any users from the system.

What emerging technologies most interest you in 2017? How does it stack up to these three steps?

Want to try some disruptive ecommerce technology to see if it’s right for you?Download OpenBazaar now and find out!

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

In these posts we take a look at some unique members of the OpenBazaar ecosystem. Today we are featuring Rob Smith who has a unique approach to selling on OpenBazaar and reasons for joining that are short and sweet.

Creativity is key in this marketplace. OpenBazaar is a place to explore.

I found out about open bazaar through Reddit. I watched them grow to a serious venture and am thoroughly impressed.

What do you make/sell?

What I started doing on OpenBazaar is offering discount on products at Amazon.com, similar to purse.io. I am offering more of a tailored experience and better customer service and of course better rates.

Why are you selling your product on OpenBazaar?

I want to facilitate the usage of Bitcoin for those who use it as currency. Some people want to use BTC for every purchase they can.

I feel like I can help Bitcoin be perceived as the currency of the internet through OpenBazaar’s platform.

How has your experience been with OpenBazaar so far?

Setup on OpenBazaar was an absolute breeze. I find the UI to be great. Plenty of options for a vendor to customize a store.

How familiar are you with Bitcoin?

I am a long-term Bitcoin supporter. I’ve been involved in Bitcoin since 2010.